Dave Cox, head of the Historical Enquiries Team, revealed that last year`s funding, worth £4 million, had to come out of Sir Hugh Orde`s policing budget for Northern Ireland, even though the government promised two years ago that it would provide £32 million for the work over six years.

But as Northern Ireland Office officials prepared a stock-take of the HET, Mr Cox vowed the review of 3,268 murders between 1969 and 1998 would go on even if it had to be funded from the existing Police Service of Northern Ireland budget.

“There`s been a lot of publicity about a stock-taking of the HET process and that`s fine,” Mr Cox said.

“We`re up for being audited and we`re up for justifying what we do because we believe it is a very valuable process.

“But the message this sends out to families is: `Are you going to pull the process then? Is it going to stop? I am on the chronological list and they are not going to get to me for another couple of years. Does that mean they are going to change their mind and after all these promises they won`t come?`

“The chief (Sir Hugh) has been very upfront about all this and I will as well. We will get around to all the families because the chief has told me if the NIO do not fund us, he will.

“The point is we are almost back to square one as far as the PSNI budget is concerned. You have the demands of current policing on the chief`s day-to-day budget, which is why the (NIO-backed) project fund was set up for HET.

“If the money the chief has for current policing is diverted to policing the past, then that has a big impact on his planning.”